Low Power Mode is something that was introduced to the iPhone with iOS 9, and is the reason why your iPhone battery icon is yellow.
So if you have noticed that yellow battery icon, you might be thinking that the setting was turned on automatically when you upgraded to iOS 9.
Low Power Mode is not turned on by default in iOS 9. Most instances of Low Power Mode being turned on are due to a prompt that your iPhone will give you when your iPhone hits 20% battery life or lower in iOS 9.
If you click that prompt to enable Low Power Mode, then some background functions that use your battery will be toned down or turned off entirely, and your battery icon will switch from black or white to yellow.
Turning Low Power Mode On or Off in iOS 9
The steps below were performed on an iPhone 6 Plus, in iOS 9.2. These same steps will work for other iPhone models that are running iOS 9 or higher. Note that your iPhone may still prompt you to turn on Low Power Mode to conserve battery life when you hit 20% battery life.
If Low Power Mode is turned on while the device is charging, it will turn off automatically when the device is charged back up to 80%. However, you can manually turn Low Power Mode on when your battery has a charge percentage higher than 80%.
Here is how to toggle Low Power Mode in iOS 9 –
- Open the Settings menu.
- Scroll down and select the Battery option.
- Tap the button to the right of Low Power Mode. Low Power mode is on when there is green shading around the button, and when the battery icon at the top-right corner of the screen is yellow.
These steps are also shown below with pictures –
Step 1: Open the iPhone Settings menu.
Step 2: Scroll down and select the Battery option.
Step 3: Tap the button to the right of Low Power Mode to toggle it on or off. Low Power Mode is turned on in the picture below.
Now that you know more about using Low Power Mode in iOS 9 you will be able to adjust this setting based on whether or not you want your phone to apply the settings that it enables.
One other interesting utility function in iOS 9 is Wi-Fi Assist. This feature allows you to use your cellular data connection on Wi-Fi if your Wi-Fi connection is really slow, or if it doesn’t have a connection to the Internet. Learn more about Wi-Fi Assist to see where you can find this setting and turn it on or off.
Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read over 50 million times.
After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.
His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.